Cherish The Second Chances
by Airotia
Summary: When Lily doesn't know how to respond to James, and thus ignores him, it leads to her death. But beings from beyond the veil to give her a second chance at what should have been in the first place. Lily x James Alice x Frank Twoshot
1. First Mistakes

**Cherish the Second Chances**

**Chapter 1 : Missed First Chances**

_This story is dedicated to lily512, a good friend of mine from school. I'll make this a two-shot, one being the current situation, and the next chapter being the 'second chance' (I'm sure you guys figured that there would be a second chance from the title, or else I'm afraid you're not quite bright enough to read my stories. Sorry.)_

_P.S. I really wish you'd just go forth and be with James, you silly Lily._

----

"Oi! Lily!" Alice called, rushing up to greet her friend as she came off of the train. She threw her arms quickly around her best friend, held her at arm's length, and smiled brightly. "How was your winter break?" she asked quickly, a bright smile adorning her pudgy face.

Lily was slightly shocked, even though by now, she really had gotten used to Alice. Her activeness, her hyperactivity, and especially her extreme forwardness around her friends often shocked Lily, just as it had now, for it was a big difference in comparison with her well-to-do Muggle family.

"Great!" Lily finally replied, deciding on an answer. Though, in truth, 'great' didn't summarize it. Not at all, not one bit… In fact, 'great' was far from the truth. She had been thinking about a particular messy-haired, bad mannered boy in her grade—thinking, of course, of James Potter. And, of course, she was tortured throughout the entire winter break by her sister, Petunia, and her parents were constantly asking questions about the magical world, more than half of which she couldn't answer by law.

"Really, now? James has been asking about you all break," Alice said with a wink and a nudge. "So, what are you going to do? I mean, you guys even went on that date…" Alice hinted with a small smirk. Lily sighed. Really, she wish she knew what to do, how to act. A good portion of her wanted to keep pushing James away—but another portion of her desperately wanted to just be swept up into his arms and carried away into the sunset, as dramatically cliché as it sounded.

"Enough about me," Lily said, turning the subject away from her and her 'love life'. Really, she didn't feel like she had much of one. After all, James often went out with girls on first dates, but rarely made it to the second date. In fact, that was another fact she was worried about. She often heard him and Sirius talk about a contest in which they competed over who could get farther with a girl on their first date (Sirius was winning, for he had once gone out with a very desperate girl, and… well, we'll just say they're lucky an abortion wasn't needed). "What about you? You've been alone with Frank all winter, after all…" Lily said, turning the subject on her best friend.

"Nothing happened. Just the usual hanging around, you know? We barely even kiss," Alice said with a shrug. _'Hypocrite. She tells me to move forward more quickly, but when it comes to her… She's been going out with him for months, and she still blushes madly when he kisses her cheek.'_

"You know you're being very hypocritical, right?" Lily asked with a small grin, deciding that those were thoughts that needed to be voiced aloud.

"Yeah, yeah…" Alice said, waving it off. "So, how was your winter break?" Alice asked with a small sigh.

"You asked that already," Lily said, her grin turning very quickly into a frown.

"You lied. I know you better than that, Lily. You had to at least have been constantly tortured by Prune or whatever her name is," Alice said, making fun of Petunia's name purposely to force a smile out of Lily.

"Yeah. You know me too well," Lily said with a sigh.

----

"You know Lily's coming back today, right?" Remus asked from the couch as James and Sirius played a game of Wizard's Chess from in front of the fire, not bothering to look up from his Potions book.

"Yeah, I know…" James said, as he stared at the chessboard with a slight glare. He was losing badly, as he usually did, and he was trying his best to find out a good move.

"No use, James. The setup is perfect! No matter what move you do, on my next turn, you'll find yourself checkmated!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Yeah, you're right… Fine, you win," James decided, getting up and leaving the table, not bothering to move a piece.

"Oi! At least make it a real defeat!" he called after James. "Remus?" Sirius asked Remus with a hopeful look.

Remus sighed, setting his book aside, took James' spot, and quickly said, "Knight to E7."

The knight obliged, and Remus sighed. "Check," he announced, and leaned back in the chair, waiting for the dumb folded Sirius to move his next piece.

"Pawn to E7," Sirius commanded, and the small pawn shyly took its place at E7, knocked the knight down.

"Queen to E7, checkmate," Remus said before returning to his book and the couch.

"I'll beat you some day, damn it…" Sirius muttered as he put away the pieces.

----

Lily walked into the Great Hall and breathed in the sight, stopping for a few seconds to stare at the masses of students, from twelve years old to, some, eighteen, not to mention the professors and other members of the staff. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood, even the Slytherins—who were no doubt discussing the amazing parties their parents threw, or the magnificent dark art presents they received over break—were as cheerful as they could get.

Alice nudged her forward after she stood their for nearly ten seconds, giving her ample time to get reacquainted, but yet hurrying her forward because she was hungry. They took their seats, far away from James and the Marauders (Lily picked the seats) and began to eat, piling food upon their plates, no longer caring a bit about the strange looks they could get from the younger girls when they put on so much food.

"So, how do you feel about James?" Alice asked while she piled chicken onto her and Frank's plates.

"I… I don't know. I've been thinking about it, and… I can't tell. I just can't," Lily admitted, her tone obviously of exasperation, putting her head in her hands as she picked at her peas, suddenly feeling a loss of appetite.

"Sheesh, so, what are you going to do about it?" Alice asked, annoyed at her friend's refuse to make any sort of move on James.

"I'm going to wait until he asks me out again, and then I'll say yes, and then… And then I'll figure it out," Lily decided firmly. Alice shook her head at her friend's cowardice, but said nothing, and instead turned her attention to Frank.

Down the table, Sirius was nudging James underneath the table. "Lily's down there, and there is an empty seat right beside her…" he pointed out suggestively.

"No… she hasn't even given me a glance, even though we share the same Head's common room. She also didn't reply to any of my letters, nor send me anything, not even a quick, 'How are things?'" James pointed out before filling his mouth with mashed potatoes.

Sirius sighed. "You're a bloody idiot. Maybe she's shy!" Sirius pointed out.

"Lily? Shy? The girl who yelled at a first year for bumping into her in the middle of a crowded corridor? The girl who shouted at me in the middle of Dumbledore's speech for only asking her out… and making a few, er, jokes…? Yeah, right, she's shy. She doesn't want anything to do with me, Sirius. If she did, she'd make the move."

"Right. You know that only desperate girls ask a guy out. She's playing hard-to-get, you git!" Sirius shouted.

"Lily? She has more sense than to play weird mind games, you know," James said, shaking his head softly at his friends suggestions. Really, sometimes he was so out of it…

----

"A Hogsmeade trip, eh?" Lily asked, glancing at the board in her Head Common Room.

"Looks like it," James replied. _'Come on, Lily, ask me anything… Give me a hint that you're not going with anyone… Come on!'_ James shouted at Lily inside his mind.

"Yeah…" Lily responded to his response. _'You idiot, ask me! Now! Just go, "Hey, Lily, after that great first date, you mind going on a second?' Even something idiotic like that is fine, as long as it's anything!'_ Lily screamed inside her mind. She finally found the will to go up the stairs, giving up on James asking right away.

She walked up the stairs to her room, when James called out, "Hey, wait, Lily!"

She froze, certain he was about to ask her out.

"Isn't… isn't that your bag over there?" James asked pointing to the bag by the couch.

"Oh… yeah…" the disappointment was definitely apparent in her voice, and she waited on that fifth step as James retrieved it for her. He handed it to her, and as he did so, he shocked her from the static picked up as he walked across the carpeted floor.

They stared at each other, right into each other's eyes. At that moment, in most movies, would be the moment that the boy and the girl confessed their undying love for each other, and how they always wanted to be together, and how they'd always stay together, no matter what.

"Goodnight," Lily said simply before turning to her door and hurrying up the stairs. She slammed the door behind her and leaned against the door, clasping her bag to her chest, breathing in and out heavily, constantly reprimanding herself for being a coward and an idiot.

James was standing still frozen at the bottom of the stairs, staring shell-shocked at the spot where Lily was just standing and at the door she had just slammed.

"Stupid! Stupid stupid stupid stupid!" he cried out, hitting himself repeatedly on the head with each 'stupid'.

----

"You're tagging along as the third wheel, huh?" Alice asked with a deep frown set on her face.

"Yeah. Sorry if I'm getting in the way of you and Frank," Lily said with a small wink.

"Yeah, right. Don't worry, we're sort of used to it. We were going to go to the Three Broomsticks for butterbeer first, and then we were going to hike over to the Shrieking Shack. Sound okay?" Alice asked.

"Yeah, perfect. I could do with a walk," Lily said with a hurried nod.

"So… why aren't you going with James?" Alice asked with a small smirk. Another look flashed just behind her eyes, but Lily couldn't place what exactly it was.

"Because… well, frankly, I'm an idiot," Lily agreed upon.

"Ah. That excuse. That's what I use when my parents ask me about Potions marks," Alice said jokingly, and Lily smirked knowingly, for it was something that could possibly happen.

----

"Milady," Frank said in a courteous manner, pulling a chair out for Lily. He smirked at her, and she smiled back kindly, giving him the same look an older sister would give a little brother.

Frank did the same for Alice, though it didn't seem as exaggerated. Lily sat in silence, staring at her butterbeer, thinking about James, when she finally realized how quiet the other two were being.

She looked up from her butterbeer to see them both staring at her with strange expressions. Frank's she couldn't place, for, though she had known him her entire time at Hogwarts, she didn't know him well at all. As for Alice, she could tell it was sadness and jealousy, mixed in two, but why she should be feeling that towards Lily, she had no clue. Alice had a boyfriend, after all, and her life was overly much better, though Lily made better marks.

"What?" she asked nervously, to the both of them.

"Uh, nothing…" the both stated suddenly, looking down at their own drinks.

BOOM 

"What the…?" Lily asked as she turned around, only to see a tree falling. She heard screams of various pitches and volumes, and she jumped to her feet, wand out. Then, as if it was a stampede of students, students from their Third year to their Seventh ran past the window, along with many other patrons and shopkeepers, followed soon after by cloaked figures.

Lily, with Alice and Frank in tow, ran outside, her wand raised. A few older students were fighting the cloaked men, including James, Sirius, and Remus. Lily looked away from them, knowing they had that group handled and turned to another bigger group, where professors and another smaller set of older students were fighting. Lily ran to that group, who seemed to be struggling with the more skilled Death Eaters, and began to throw a flurry of spells at them, throwing the spells no matter how useless they could be in a fight(she swore she had even thrown scourgify).

She heard a deep scream from her right, and glanced, still throwing spells, to see that Frank was curled up on the ground, crying out in pain. Alice was more worried about him than her own safety, and would have dropped her wand had she thought about it. She leaned over Frank, and Lily knew she couldn't help them at the moment, but as long as it wasn't the Avada Kedavra…

At the same instant she thought this, as if laughing at her, a green burst of light hit her in the back and she could feel herself slipping in a deep, cold darkness…

----

_Death wasn't at all like Lily had expected. In fact, it was quite the opposite of what she expected. She expected to be surrounded by fluffy clouds and to stand in front of gates to be judged, and then allowed into Heaven._

_But she could feel herself floating in oblivion, all silent around her. She looked around curiously, wondering what was going on, and why death wasn't working the way she thought it should._

'Come on, she's perfectly nice…' a high-pitched voice sounded from behind her. Lily opened her mouth to somehow protest, to ask what was going on, but her vocal cords weren't working. 

"'Nice' doesn't cut it. We only have one chance a year to do something like this, and well, is she really worth it?" a deeper pitched voice sounded, more hoarse than the other, but still feminine.

"_Of course she is! She's a big part in the fight against Voldemort! If she doesn't live, the world will fall to darkness!"_

"_And? That concerns us why?" _

"_May I suggest a compromise?" a much different voice sounded, this one calmer than the other two._

"_You're going to, anyways…" the deeper voice muttered._

"_Indeed. The thing that concerns you is that this girl is self-centered and much too shy and cowardly to grasp the future she has, or rather, will be dealt. Perhaps we should send her back, about the time she gets off of the train, and as payment, have her take away the self-centeredness and cowardice?"_

_"Deal," the two other voice agreed, and in a flash of green light, not unlike the one that had put her there, Lily was stepping off of the train again…_


	2. Second Oppurtunities

**Cherish the Second Chances**

_**Chapter 2 : Righting What Went Wrong**_

Lily felt almost a sense of déjà vu as she stepped off the train. She could have sworn she was seeing what was going to happen, and barely half a second later, exactly what she had thought would happen—did. Alice asked her about her winter, and even smiled the same sort of bright smile Lily thought she would. Lily shook off these thoughts, before replying to her questions.

"Great!" is what she wanted to say. But, instead, she shrugged and sighed. "It pretty much sucked. Petunia was a prick all break, and my parents kept pestering me about life here," she explained in brevity as she climbed off the stairs from the train.

"Oh, really? Ch, anything is better than being left alone…" Alice responded, trailing off at the end.

"What, did you and Frank fight?" Lily asked, concerned.

"No, I just get a little tired of him, sometimes. You know," Alice explained with a shrug.

"Uh-huh. Ever try doing something other than cuddle?" Lily asked with a wink. She then mentally paused, wondering how she could be so… so unreserved in her comments! After all, at that point, she would have simply sighed and called her impossible, without actually stating something of that sort.

"Lily, you okay?" Alice asked, leaning forward, as if to check her forehead. Apparently, she was thinking the same thing that Lily was, because she knew Lily well enough to know that she was always polite and well-mannered—never suggestive.

"Yeah, I'm fine… Maybe a little tired," Lily admitted. "Have you seen James?" she asked suddenly.

----

Lily walked into the Great Hall, and she smiled at the sight of all the students surrounding the huge tables of food. She gave a shout of excitement as she entered, drawing attention from the adjacent students to herself. Lily walked up to the Gryffindor table, and looked for a seat near the Marauders. She still had no clue how to approach James, really, but what would planning do?

"Lily, over here!" Frank called. Lily reluctantly went to join Alice and Frank, after realizing there were no empty seats anywhere near the Marauders. Lily took a seat across from Frank, who was sitting beside Alice.

"What was that about?" Alice asked with a small smirk. She was piling chicken onto her and Frank's plates, obviously interested in what Lily was doing so far away.

"Ahh, I wanted to greet James…" Lily said with a sigh as she bit into her chicken. She felt two pairs of eyes on her, and she could feel them staring. She looked up from her chicken, and noted the looks that her two friends had in their eyes.

Lily couldn't be sure, but she knew that Alice had a look of jealousy in her eyes. It was fleeting, but for a brief second, it was definitely there. When Lily caught Alice's eye, she immediately turned and began to put mounds of mashed potatoes and butter onto the plates now, busing herself with fixing the plates.

The look Frank gave Lily was much, much different, however. Lily didn't know Frank as well as she knew Alice, but she knew that that look was not a look with pure friendly feelings behind it. If Lily didn't know any better, she could have sworn that that look had some sort of longing behind it, a sort of longing that should not be felt by him towards anyone but Alice.

Lily stopped contemplating about James and her situation, and then began thinking about her friends' situations. _'What do I have that Alice could possibly want? And… does Frank like me? Because that look… The way he looked at me seemed as if he wanted to be with me, and not Alice. But… what could Alice be jealous of, then?'_ Lily mused to herself. She continued eating, but after she had caught her friends' eyes, they were immensely quiet. And so was she, for she was wondering about the two of them.

What could it possibly be? She continued to think as she ate, but Frank and Alice eventually slipped into meaningless conversation over schoolwork and classes.

Alice suddenly popped up with a question, which made Lily freeze in the middle of her bite of green beans. "So, how do you feel about James?" she asked, a smirk on her face as she leaned forward.

"I… It might sound silly, but… I think I love him," Lily decided, averting her gaze to the messy-haired boy sitting a few seats away.

Alice froze, before regaining her composure. Lily noted that that was not the answer she had been looking for—not by a long shot. _'Does… does she like James…?'_ Lily asked, but hoped that wasn't the case.

"So, what are you going to do about it?" Alice questioned, the look from before back on her face—except now it was added with a trace of sadness, somehow.

"Well, go out with him, and soon, before he decides I'm too easy to chase," Lily replied with a small chuckle.

Down the table, in the Marauders' area, Sirius was nudging James in the ribs. "So, you going to ask Lily out?"

"Yeah, yeah, eventually…" James replied grumpily, not enjoying the nudging. Well, he didn't mind the nudging. He minded the nudging while he was _eating_.

"No eventuallies! You must do it soon, before the chance passes you by!" Sirius cried out, a _little_ too loud. Well, that was an under exaggeration. The people in the Slytherin table heard him, and were now talking about how the blood traitor was a bloody idiot. "So, when you gonna do the deed?" Sirius asked, leaning forward.

"I don't know! Maybe tonight… Maybe tomorrow during class… Does it really matter when I do?" James asked.

"Jeez, you're more experienced than I am, and you are acting like it's your first date! What has the world come to?" Sirius cried out, once again, far too loudly.

James sighed, and thought to himself. _'Why am I acting like it's my first date…?'_ James asked, wondering why he was so insecure, so unsure.

"It's because it's the first date that matters to you," Remus cut in with a smile.

----

The two of them stood, side-by-side, staring at the bulletin board. Lily eyed the announcement a split-second after James did, and she wasn't surprised that he was silent. What happened to the James that always asked her out randomly, in so many different ways it was mind-boggling? What happened to the James that would try wooing her, even if he was bodily harmed? What happened to the forwardness, the courage?

'_Screw it. I have to be the guy tonight, huh?'_ she asked herself wryly.

"Hey, I know I'm probably jumping up on the waiting list of the millions of fan girls that want to go out with you, but, well, want to escort me to Hogsmeade?" Lily asked, surprised she didn't have to run out of the room as a completely bright red flash.

"You're always number zero, Lily," he replied, using her first name for the first time since the end of the break. "So, yeah…" he began, unsure of how to continue.

Lily decided that herself. "Goodnight," she said, hugging his arm gently before ascending the stairs that led to her room.

"Lily! Wait!" he called up the stairs. She stopped and stared down. "Catch!" he called as he tossed her bag to her.

"Thanks!" she replied, flashing him a brilliant, dazzling, beautiful… stop it James… extremely white, shiny, perfect… really, stop thinking about her teeth… straight, lovely, graceful… please… wondrous smile.

Heh. He was lucky he didn't make a ballad about her eyebrow (1). He stood there for minutes, staring at the door that Lily had closed, before he finally broke out into a huge grin and started dancing around the room. He grabbed a throw pillow off of the couch and began to do the tango with it, twirling around happily, as if he was a teenaged girl from a movie where she finally got to go out with the perfect guy.

----

In the end, the excursion to Hogsmeade became a double date. Lily and Alice with James and Frank. Lily didn't completely focus on James, either; she paid vast amounts of attention to the way that Frank and Alice were acting. She noted that they held hands, at the least, and every once in a while Alice would lean against Frank, but for the most part, Alice stared at James, and Frank stared at Lily—which made it awkward when their eyes met.

Lily was sure she had it figured out, now. Alice wanted to be with James, and Frank wanted to be with, well, herself. After she made that revelation, she couldn't stop thinking about it, only pausing to nod at James while he was talking every few moments.

They walked around Hogsmeade, visiting every shop on the left side of the road. They were just about to start working on the right side, when they heard a rumbling BOOM sound. The two couples ran towards the noise, rather than away, as much of the other patrons were doing. They all immediately took their wands out, ready to fight off whatever menace had dared threaten the other students.

Around them, certainly the cause of the mounting turmoil, were dozens of wizards dressed in dark cloaks, their faces covered.

James immediately went to the group that Sirius, Remus, and Peter, having been closer to the origin of the battle, had gotten to first, and had managed to separate from the others by themselves. Alice, Frank and Lily followed automatically, not wanting to leave behind their friends, nor be left behind themselves.

Lily flung random spells at the Death Eaters, one of the Death Eaters actually falling under a 'scourgify' spell.

And then, she saw a brilliant flash of light hit Frank square in the chest. He began to writhe in pain, and Lily immediately recognized the spell as the Cruciatus Curse. She called out his name, and as soon as she did, she saw Alice beginning to defend him.

Lily would have smiled; she would have pondered this action, had she not been busy. At the moment, she couldn't think or be happy, because any single pause could seriously cost her her life.

The fight ended almost abruptly. The Dark Mark was put into the sky by some random Death Eater, and within the minute after the Dark Mark was set, all of the Death Eaters just… disappeared.

----

They all sat in the main Common Room, some idly chatting to keep the worry off of their minds, some being strangely quiet due to anxiety, and still others crying because of what they had seen—these last ones were mainly Third years, who were the youngest to take place. The First and Second years were all confused and kept trying to ask what happened, but until Remus calmly explained it to one of them, none of them knew.

And there sat Alice, who was one of the strangely silent ones. She was huddled up on one end of the couch, hoping that Frank was all right. Lily tried comforting her, but Alice simply shrugged her away, and told her to go be with James. Lily listened.

Sirius asked Remus if he knew what they were going to do. Remus shook his head.

"That means no one here knows…" Sirius concluded with a sigh. No one questioned his logic.

Finally, Professor McGonagall came in the Common Room. Lily swear it had felt like days since they were all told to wait there, but in reality, it had only truly been maybe an hour.

She read off a list of the few who died, and the few who were scarred for life. She also informed them of who was in the hospital, who was in the hospital wing of the school, and who wouldn't recover.

Frank was in the Hospital Wing, sleeping off the Cruciatus. Apparently it hadn't set in long enough to do lasting damage. As soon as Professor McGonagall told them it was okay to leave the Common Room, Alice rushed out.

Lily went to go follow her, but James held her back, grabbing her arm and shaking her head.

"But, she…!" Lily began, but James only continued shaking his head before he interrupted her.

"They need to work out some things," James replied.

"Ahh, I think I'll take a shower…" Sirius dismissed himself with a stretch,

"You know, I really _should _finish that Potions essay…" Remus added, using the same tone as Sirius did to leave the pair alone.

"I, uh… I'll go to bed!" Peter squeaked as he dashed up the stairs.

"At sunset?" James asked aloud, but Peter made no move to correct himself.

----

Lily leaned against James, staring at the fire. They didn't bother going to their Common Room—besides, it was more comforting to be around other people. They didn't make conversation, but instead, sat silently, lost in their own thoughts.

"Hey, James?" Lily asked, breaking the silence.

"Yeah?" James replied.

"… Do you think Alice and Frank… will be okay?" Lily asked.

"You mean, as a couple?" James asked. Lily nodded, and he continued. "Yeah. They'll be fine," James responded firmly.

Silence once again. "Hey, James?" Lily asked, not unlike a few moments ago.

"Yeah?"

"… I… love you," Lily said, hiding her face in his chest so he wouldn't see her blush.

"I love you, too, Lily," James replied with a smile, surprised to hear the words come out of his mouth so easily, before kissing the top of her head.

'_Yeah, we'll all be okay,'_ James thought to himself as he continued staring into the fire, holding a ligthly blushing Lily in his arms.

----

**A/N: So, that's the end of my little two-shot. Sorry it took so long to get the second chapter out. Hope you all enjoyed it! **

**(1) – an allusion to the "Seven Ages of Man" by William Shakespeare. I thought it'd be (somewhat) funny to put it in here.**


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